I was surprised at the news this week that we may not have a fast rail network established in Australia for thirty or more years.
For decades, federal and state politicians have let us down on major infrastructure projects, very fast rail being just one of them.
We ought to be ashamed that it takes longer to travel by train from Sydney to Newcastle than the time it takes to travel by train between Beijing and Nanjing in China, a 900km trip I did last year.
While I accept the extraordinary difference in population size and government of Australia and China, the need for and value to be gained from major infrastructure projects like fast rail is the same.
I am certain that if we have a fast rail connection between, say Sydney and Melbourne, Sydney and Canberra or Melbourne and Canberra years ago then today we would have a broader fast rail network.
The announcement of the latest report into fast rail in Australia released this week piqued my interest as I have just got back from two days in China. Yesterday, in the China Daily newspaper, they had a feature on their fast rail. 98,000 km of tracks, 85% of wood and crude oil shipped by rail, 4 billion tons of cargo transported annually … the numbers roll on.
If we had in Australia what China has we could get from Melbourne to Sydney in three hours and Sydney to Brisbane in four hours. Indeed, we could get from Melbourne to Perth in just six or seven hours. And we could do this in more comfort and with less stress than air travel.
Major infrastructure projects like fast rail can economically focus and define a generation. While I am no expert, it seems to me that this is the case in China.
Having such a network in Australia could reduce the cost of doing business and make Australia a more appealing destination for tourism and economic migrants.
Sure, we need to undertake projects like this within the scope of our population and economy. However, we will only grow and prosper as much as we challenge ourselves to.
It’s on infrastructure opportunities that we have lacked leadership in Australia for decades. I don’t want to wait thirty years.
Mark, agree absolutely with your sentiments. Obviously we dont have the population base to have an equivalent infrastructure network to Europe or some parts of Asia. However the lack of vision and investment during the economic boom of the last 15 years is a real tragedy for this country. It is nothing short of a national disgrace that there isnt a dual carriageway highway all the way from Brisbane to Melbourne in the 21st century. And lets not start on Water infrastructure. I personally love travelling on the train and when you have the european fast train experience, you would think it would work here. Love to see it, but we cant even get the basics right, so it might be a way off yet.
The problem is that major infrastructure costs a lot of money, $100 billion for the fast rail I heard. So despite any good they may bring, any government opposition will jump on these figures and a rallying cry to get themselves into government by telling the people how they will do it much cheaper (and inevitably worse). We are seeing this exact thing at the moment with the NBN. China has the ability of not much government opposition.
We spent $30b on the Iraq war based on dubious evidence. There’s a third of the rail right there. Sometimes we need to be bold and invest today for a gain tomorrow and beyond.
Not a lot of money for needed infastructure and it will create jobs. A 21st century Snowy Mountains Project.
Look at the money that could be saved by stopping payments to the car indusry who simply send to money overseas as royalty/interlectual payments. The car workers would no doubt be a willing workforce.
My only concern is the time of construction needed.
I remember at school (many years ago) learning about the 3 different railway guages in Australia and as I’ve grown older I appreciate how disruptive this was
and how lacking in foresight our previous
leaders were (not leaving out the present
bunch either).
I call it the guage mentality when every state wants their own little fifedom and they simply don’t understand that a national infrastructure is of the utmost importance to the future of Australia.
Look what made the US great – the railway
that swept from east to west right across
that huge country.
We need new leaders – with vision and foresight (I’ve put Abbott’s book on the front counter but methinks he is not up to
the task either – maybe Turnbull – at least
he is not a career pollie and has had vast
experience in the business arena.
ps. by the way the Abbott book is selling well?????????
After watching Turnbull at the Great Broadband Liberal Policy Launch I believe he also does not have the foresight or vision required unfortunately.
The infrastructure may have large establishment costs but the ROI estimated in the report is actually quiet good.
I’m not sure why the project could not be completed sooner if multiple stages were undertaken simultaneously.
If it took the time estimated in the report I suspect I’d be old and a few here would be dead :-S